


Are You Guys Friends in Real Life?

by ScripStrel



Category: Be More Chill - Iconis/Tracz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Youtubers, Banter, Canon Compliant, Childhood Friends, Childhood Memories, Cussing, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Kissing, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Squip, Rated T for language, Social Media, The Fic I Never Thought I'd Write, YouTube
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-06
Packaged: 2019-09-12 20:16:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16878501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScripStrel/pseuds/ScripStrel
Summary: An up-and-coming vintage gaming channel does its first Q and A.Jeremy would rather not spill his secrets to the world.Michael's really not making this easier.Also known as the fic I never thought I'd write.





	Are You Guys Friends in Real Life?

“Are you guys friends in real life?” Jeremy read aloud. He glanced over at Michael, lounging on the beanbag next to him, sporting a devilish grin. Jeremy sighed. After years of their stupid vintage gaming channel somehow getting crazy popular, Michael and the viewers had finally roped him into agreeing to a Q and A, just like Michael had roped him into starting the channel in the first place back in middle school. 

Hello fame. Jeremy really wasn’t the biggest fan, as much as he’d despised his teenage loser status. He’d always just thought that they’d have maybe a hundred viewers who actually shared their dumb niche interests. It was always supposed to be a hobby, not a career, but here they were with a few million people watching them be idiots in front of a camera. 

The fans were great, really. He loved being able to meet up with people who  _ did _ actually share their interests. Goodness knows it was better than scouring long-dead Reddit pages for the hundredth time. The kids were sweet, too, and he was always happy to get them watching something other than another Minecraft Hunger Games mod or Elsa toy porn. The porn part wasn’t a joke, either, Jeremy could say from experience. He’d really been desperate for a few years there. So, considering what fucked-up shit was floating around, his and Michael’s foul language and dark humor were probably a lot cleaner than their competition, at least. And as for the middle-aged guys obviously living in their parents’ basements? They were obnoxious sometimes, being the main source of their hate comments, but they were loyal viewers, and the stats were enough to keep Jeremy tolerant. Really, it wasn’t a half-bad gig. 

But then there was the last chunk of the audience: the insane teenage girls who only watched the stuff in hopes they’d catch one of them blushing or looking longingly at the other or, god forbid, kissing. Their high school bullies aside, Jeremy had never  _ really _ expected to be shipped with his best friend. 

So: fuel for the fire. The fandom had to double-check that they weren’t just co-workers or something. It made sense.

Fighting the urge to punch Michael’s lights out, Jeremy rolled his eyes at the camera. “Unfortunately, yes,” he said. "We are friends." Michael made a noise of protest at ‘unfortunately’ and Jeremy shoved at his face. 

“C’mon, you think we could fake this?” Michael said, adjusting his glasses.

“Yeah, this guy can’t act for shit.”

“You’re one to talk, mister,” Michael said with a snort. “One school play doesn’t make you an Oscar winner.”

Jeremy gasped in mock offense. “Excuse you, I was fucking great in Midsummer.”

Michael gave him a  _ look _ over his glasses, and Jeremy shot a playful glare right back, marred by the smile he couldn’t tap down. “Let’s see…” Michael started counting on his fingers. “You only did it in the first place to impress a girl, they didn’t make you audition because no high schooler in their right mind would want to do Shakespeare and they just accepted everyone stupid enough to sign up, and you didn’t even try to learn your lines.” He reached over and tousled Jeremy’s hair. Jeremy batted him away, pink in the face. Michael laughed and Jeremy tried to ruffle Michael’s hair in retaliation, punching him in the arm instead when Michael kept dodging out of the way. “Puck? More like 'I fucking suck.'” 

“At least  _ I  _ wasn’t the one who barged onto stage uninvited and ruined the whole thing,” Jeremy grumbled.

“I had to save your ass from the modern apocalypse,” Michael pointed out, throwing an arm around Jeremy’s shoulders. “Without me, it would’ve been a much bigger disaster.”

Jeremy leaned into Michael’s touch and glanced at the camera. Still rolling. Still live. Something cold crawled up his throat. There were some things he wanted to keep off the internet if he could, and as much as he wanted to argue about that night (because he  _ definitely _ remembered it better, considering he  _ still _ got tingles down his spine occasionally), he really wasn’t in the mood to answer questions about it for the rest of his life. So, he shot a pointed look between Michael and the camera, and hoped to high heaven he caught on with the redirection. “Yeah, sorry man,” Jeremy said, choosing his words carefully. “A desperate drama teacher trying to connect with the youths by throwing zombies into Shakespeare isn’t really the end of the world. I still blame you.” 

Michael raised his eyebrows but followed Jeremy’s gaze and set his jaw as his eyes flickered with realization. His gleeful smile returned an instant later, nearly bleeding light. Really, his natural charisma wasn’t fair. It had taken Jeremy  _ so _ long to look normal in front of a camera. Worse still, Michael’s inhuman charm  _ still _ made it really hard for Jeremy to focus, wrapped up in a deadly burrito of self-consciousness and trying not to stare too much. 

“Agree to disagree, buddy,” Michael said, ruffling Jeremy’s hair again. His scalp burned at the contact, and he really hoped his ears weren’t starting to turn red. “But yeah, friends since… What? Kindergarten?” He cocked his head and pouted at Jeremy, whose heart swooped. Damn him and his puppy face, which he didn’t even  _ need _ right now. 

Jeremy rolled his eyes and willed his blush away. “Don’t pretend you don’t remember, dude. You make me celebrate the anniversary of the day we met every freaking year.”

“It was a bright and sunny August morning,” Michael said in his best announcer voice, gesturing wildly at the camera and nearly smacking Jeremy upside the head, “or at least it should’ve been. These sad, saggy Jersey skies decided to dump their payload on the first day of school, and instead of recess, two adorable tykes were locked inside with only the strange, frightening new world to entertain them.”

“We were both awkward losers, even at age four,” Jeremy interjected in his best impression of Michael’s announcer voice, which was admittedly complete shit, especially as he spoke through his laughter. 

“Connected mainly by their love of space and hatred of societal norms—”

“I was sitting in the corner looking at the pictures in a book about planets because I was too scared to go play simon says with everyone else and he came up to me.”

Michael turned and scowled at him. “Can you stop interrupting my story?”

“Can you tell it right?” 

Michael clutched a hand over his heart, looking absolutely scandalized. Jeremy swallowed down his laugh and ignored the urge to choke on his own spit at the sudden and belated realization that Michael was egging him on on purpose. That fucker had always known that Jeremy had a thing for his goofiness. It really shouldn’t have been a surprise. This was all  _ his _ damn idea, after all. “I’m making it interesting!”

“You’re making shit up.” Jeremy looked at the camera again, catching a glimpse of the live chat on the computer screen out of the corner of his eye, and  _ geez, _ was it blowing up. They’d never really done a video that let them mess around without having a game to worry about. This was probably more open than they’d ever been on their channel. So much for not giving the shippers more to work with. Fucking Michael. He  _ knew _ what riled Jeremy up, and he’d probably planned to do it all when they were live and Jeremy couldn’t do anything about it. “I promise our lives don’t sound like the beginning to a bad rom-com.”

Michael rested his chin on Jeremy’s shoulder, and Jeremy nearly hit the ceiling when hot breath tickled against his ear. “I mean, they kinda do.”

“You can’t sneak up on me like that.” Jeremy made no move to detach his friend from his neck.

“Says you.”

“I hate you.”

“Man,” Michael said, “wouldn’t that be the fucking dream? It would save us both a lot of trouble.”

Jeremy was probably dying. Michael was pressing his nose along the curve of his jaw now, and Jeremy  _ really  _ didn’t need to deal with it when they were rolling. Wishing he'd stop looking like a strawberry (which didn’t work), he tried to shrug Michael off. 

“Not happening,” Michael hummed, shifting his weight to join Jeremy on his beanbag and wrap his arms around him. 

Jeremy was pretty sure he was actually just on fire now. What the fuck, Michael? This was not the time. They couldn’t just… Whenever they… Did he understand how many tweets they’d be getting about  _ nothing  _ else? For like, the rest of their lives?

Unless this was all some elaborate plan to get Jeremy to… 

“What are you doing?” Jeremy hissed.

Michael mumbled something near his ear, buzzing against Jeremy’s skull, but too low to be caught by the microphones. 

“I did  _ not  _ agree to that!” Jeremy squeaked.

“Yeah you did.” It was tricky to see Michael’s expression with his face buried in the collar of Jeremy’s shirt, but Jeremy could sense his evil smile, pressed up against his collarbone. Even more warmth licked its way up his neck. “When we got high last week.”

“That doesn’t count!” 

Michael  _ finally  _ picked his head up and scrutinized Jeremy. “Don’t try to tell me,” he said, “that you won’t be all over the idea as soon as this stream ends.”

“That’s different.” Jeremy was trying in vain to wiggle free of Michael’s continued grasp around his waist. 

“Is it?” Michael raised an eyebrow. “Besides, if we don’t do it now, people are just gonna keep asking.” 

Jeremy glanced at the chat again. In the constant stream of text, he definitely caught a lot of all-caps demands for the same thing. 

He glared daggers at Michael. “You owe me big-time.”

“You got it, Player Two.” Jeremy went absolutely scarlet at the nickname, spluttering and trying, yet again, to shove Michael away.

Michael turned to face the camera. His smile was blinding as he raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so I told you all on Twitter earlier that we’d have a surprise in this livestream. I know it wasn’t really a good Q and A, but we’ve all gotta suck sometimes. Jer and I more than most.”

“Hey!”

“Oh, come on. You’d be the first to admit it.” Michael finally released him and leaned towards the camera, resting his elbows on his knees and looking all business-like and serious. Dork. “Anyway,” he said, “We’ve got a surprise, but I think we should at least answer your question a little better.” He glanced sidelong at Jeremy, who tried not to melt. Michael, the damn idiot, could make him forget he was annoyed without even trying. At least it also quieted his dread. “Are we friends in real life?”

Jeremy had to force himself not to lean it right then. Reputation be damned, especially since it was pretty much blown to pieces by now anyway.

“No.” Michael sat up, his triumphant smile brilliant enough to light a remote village for months, Jeremy would guess. “We’re not friends. We’re better.”

And with that, he pulled Jeremy into the kiss he’d been teasing all evening. A sigh of relief rang in Jeremy’s chest as warmth washed over him and he dissolved into Michael’s touch. 

At the edges of his kiss-blind awareness, he could almost hear their small corner of the internet exploding. He could almost feel the inbox headache of the next day, and he could almost pretend to care. 

He couldn’t really be upset about the shipping when it was true, anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> I've never been all that partial to YouTuber AUs, but I got an idea and had to run with it.  
> I have a longer, more serious WiP laying around, but I've been fighting with it, so have this silly fluffy thing instead.  
> Stay tuned, though. 
> 
> I love feedback! Please tell me what you think!


End file.
